Unconditional support for Israel has long been an entry requirement in American Republican politics, but that orthodoxy is being challenged by influencers in US President Donald Trump’s populist base — where invocations of the “special relationship” are falling on deaf ears.

Images of starvation and suffering in Gaza have given new impetus to a debate that has been simmering in Trump’s Make America Great Again, or MAGA, movement over whether US involvement in the Middle East is consistent with the president’s “America First” platform.

One sign of the change came in an X post from far-right firebrand congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who on Monday went further than any Republican lawmaker has previously in using the word “genocide” to describe Israel’s conduct, while also condemning the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack that started the war.

“It’s the most truthful and easiest thing to say that Oct 7th in Israel was horrific and all hostages must be returned, but so is the genocide, humanitarian crisis, and starvation happening in Gaza,” she posted.

Israel has always enjoyed broad bipartisan support in Congress but the rise of the MAGA movement, which has an isolationist bent, has challenged the ideological foundations of the “special relationship.” MAGA realpolitik seeks to limit US involvement in foreign wars to those that directly impact its interests, and in particular the “left behind” working class that makes up Trump’s base.

Pro-Trump think tank The Heritage Foundation in March called on Washington to “re-orient its relationship with Israel” from a special relationship “to an equal strategic partnership.”

And earlier this month, Greene, a leading MAGA voice in Washington, DC, proposed a measure to cancel $500 million in funding for Israel’s missile defense system. It failed by a vote........

© The Times of Israel